大韓民國에서의 死刑制度

Abstract

The Death penalty is a sentence which imposes the defendant to be put to death for his crime, thus depriving him/her of life and it’s the heaviest punishment of all. It is a very sensitive issue in the sense that it denies a person's life and dignity. It is also an on-going issue which continues to cause political and ethical controversies. Although the death penalty has been fixed constitutional, social contentions on this matter cannot be deemed settled. Rather, the decision concerned has provided a momentum for our society to introspect the question of its maintenance or abolition. The constitutional court has made it clear that the decision concerned is merely provisional which is alterable in accordance with time and conditions. Furthermore, even a pro-death penalty standpoint, which has its bases on current legal, social and political conditions and people's sentiment, mostly agrees on the abolition of death penalty in a long term view. Thus it seems reasonable to improve certain problems stemming from the current death penalty and abolish the system gradually. One of the plans for improvement would be deleting a provision stipulating a death penalty for crimes that infringe benefit and protection of the law in national and social sense, as well as property. Secondly, imposition of death sentence would have to be based on absolute majority of the judges. Thirdly, the stay of execution as one could see in that of China could be introduced within the death penalty system. Lastly, it is deemed necessary to introduce absolute life imprisonment system as a way to narrow the gap between the death penalty and life imprisonment, so that a parole is not allowed and a prisoner is confined until he dies a natural death in prison.